I’ve worked on projects at various stages of maturity, which call for different approaches depending on product-level priorities. These stages blend between one another, are often iterative, and the projects I’ve been exposed to have defined their phase segmentations differently, but here’s a generalised overview:
Conceptualisation & Definition
Proof-of-concept Prototype
Early-stage Prototypes
Late-stage Prototypes
Start-of- / Post-production
- Searching for product market fit
- Primary and secondary research to scope end-customer needs
- Ultra-low fidelity prototyping to demonstrate design intent
- MVP: defined product category and value proposition(s)
- Gathering feedback from early adopters
- Quick iterations with rapid prototyping and off-the-shelf components
- Early low-volume testing (engineering validation tests)
- Soft-tooled parts
- Top-down analysis: requirements listing and system decomposition
- Detailed function and manufacturing de-risking (design and production validation tests)
- First-off hard-tooled parts
- Pre-production sample runs
- Bottom-up tests: verification and integration
- Change management for mid- / post-manufacturing updates
- Detailed optimisation for cost-down and reliability factors
Ocado Technology ↗ develops and operates automated customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) for grocery companies around the world. From a mechanical perspective, by focusing on design for installation, lightweighting optimisations, and component standardisation, the goals are to provide flexibility in warehouse scale, lowered installation & maintenance times, and reduced capital & operating expenses for customers.
Stage
End-to-end Product Development
0
1
ResponsibilitiesMechanical & Structural Design Engineering // Product Ownership // Installation & Commissioning
As a member of the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) engineering team, I'm helping to develop and deliver a new generation of storage grid systems for Ocado's international customer base. This involves:
- Conforming the product to a range of geographic- / country- / customer-specific requirements.
- Collaborative definition of interfaces for integrating newly introduced systems (e.g. on-grid robotic pick).
- Creating configurable and data-driven components, using methods such as parametric modeling and topology optimisation.